We had tickets for the Badger Band spring concert last night, so Andy took yesterday and today off of work, and we made a mini-vacation out of it.
We left yesterday around 2:30, drove to the west side of Madison, checked into our hotel, then headed downtown to do some shopping before dinner and the concert. We got Noah a new Badger t-shirt, then met my parents at the Nitty Gritty for dinner. After we had some yummy food, we walked over to the Kohl Center for the concert. It was a great concert, complete with a flying entrance by the conductor, fireworks, an appearance by Bucky Badger, some Fifth Quarter performances, and plenty of entertainment. The boys both fell asleep. We got back to the hotel by 11:15 and were all asleep by 11:30.
This morning, we headed down to the lobby for (complimentary!) breakfast, then to the pool to do some swimming. After getting plenty pruny, we showered, got dressed, checked out, and headed back toward town. The first stop was the Henry Vilas Zoo. I used to run through the zoo when I was living near it about 10-12 years ago. It has really changed. It’s a great zoo! If any of you are ever in or near Madison on a nice sunny day, head over to the zoo. It’s free! But you may need more than just 1 1/2 hours there! Pack a picnic, and spend the day.
After our whirlwind tour of the zoo, we headed downtown again. We parked near the Memorial Union, then walked over to State Street to pick up some lunch. While we were at Einstein’s Bagels, a familiar face showed up-Scanner Dan! I couldn’t believe it! He hasn’t changed at all in the past 10 years! We picked up some apples at the fruit stand in front of the bookstore, then took our food to eat out on the Union Terrace. It was sunny, warm, packed with people, and so perfect. I’ve never seen so many laptops on the Terrace before! We probably should have had some sunscreen on (as you’ll see later), but it was a great way to have some lunch today.
After eating lunch, we treated the boys to Babcock ice cream-Noah had cookie dough, and Caden had chocolate. I had Irish Cream, and Andy had chocolate chip frozen yogurt, and some of Caden’s. It was great seeing my boys eat ice cream! This was the first ice cream cone for each of them! Noah decided it was easier to put his ice cream in a dish, then eat the cone from the bottom! Pretty cute!
After our ice cream, we started home. It was an exhausting couple of days, but totally worth it. Because I took 184(!) pictures, and I feel such a need to shoot in RAW format, and many of my pictures need to be edited, and I’m not so great at Photoshop yet, I’ll post a few choice pictures from our trip, and I’ll work on getting some more up on my Flickr page at some point. I’m just too tired to do more tonight!
Addendum: Okay, I had a little more ambition, and took better pictures, than I thought! But I may still add more later.
